By ALCANTHANG
The 2023 Lucky Hearts Poker Open kicked off the new year with a huge series. Over 43 trophy events, more than 16,000 entries came through the door to earn a piece of the $14,776,880 in prize money.
Events: 43
Entries: 16,320
Guarantees: $5,480,000
Prize Pools: $14,776,880
This was the biggest LHPO series in our history based on the entry counts, top five all-time across all festivals, and second most money we’ve awarded for a LHPO series.
We couldn’t do it without our old friends and the new ones we made during the series. Thank you.
The LHPO Championship headlined the series and drew 1,692 entries to smash the $2,000,000 guarantee. They created a prize pool worth $5,414,400 and Austrian Marius Gierse took the title along with $605,000 after a four-way deal.
We had another great round of notable wins during the series and Matt Bretzfield started things off with a big milestone. He captured the $600 Mixed PLO title early in the first week and became the first player in our history to win a trophy in four consecutive series.
Alessio Isaia and John Holley won two LHPO trophies. Isaia won his two tournaments in back-to-back days and Holley earned his seventh and eighth major Hollywood titles.
Isaia came close to winning a third on the final night of the series, getting heads-up with a big lead but fell short against Valerie Novak.
Had he won, Isaia would have been only the third player (and first in more than a decade) to win three in a series.
Those eight wins for Holley were enough to move him into a tie for the second most ever and he joined Yuval Bronshtein with eight after he won the $600 Big O.
Holley and Bronshtein are tied in second place with Michael Newman, one behind
all-time leader Raminder Singh’s nine wins.
Most Major Hollywood Wins:
Raminder Singh – 9
John Holley – 8
Michael Newman – 8
Yuval Bronshtein – 8
Brian Altman – 7
David Prociak – 7
David Shmuel – 7
Gabriel Ramos – 7
Scott Baumstein – 6
For a complete list of events and winners please visit seminolehardrockpokeropen.com
Thank you again to everyone who came out for the series; we couldn’t do it without you. We look forward to seeing everyone for the 2023 Poker Showdown from April 13 to May 2!
